Restaurant donation a dream come true

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, January 5, 2008

Daily News/MANDY MCCONAHA

Darlene Oard excitedly unpacks decorations for the newly donated Ole Ranch House restaurant that she hopes to open as an extension to the mission she is president of in Beaverton. Oard's grandson Evan Fassett, 9, sweeps the floors while Rick Painter, a member of the mission board, moves tables out of the way.

It's a gift that might just keep giving.

The Helping Hands Outreach in Beaverton was given a

surprise this fall when the owner of a local restaurant made it an offer it

couldn't refuse - a donation of the recently remodeled Ranch House

Restaurant facility.

Sister Darlene Oard, president and supervisor of the

mission, said she was overwhelmed by the gift from Albert Langer.

"He just knocked at my door and said 'I want to give you

the restaurant,'" Oard said. "It's an answer to this community's prayers."

Langer, of Ortonville, owned the restaurant for years. He

said his wife, Barbara Ann, decided to donate it after plans to sell it fell

through.

"I renovated the interior of it immensely and put a lot

of money into it hoping to sell it again but couldn't find a buyer," Langer

said. "The mission, they'll put it to good use."

While he's given to charity before, he has never made a

contribution this large.

"We just stopped there one day and she was just elated,"

he said of Oard. "It's a good cause. They're a nondenominational mission and

they help a lot of people in Gladwin County."

The plan is to continue using the facility, located east

of Beaverton at 3511 M-30, as a restaurant, but with a bit of a twist.

Oard envisions churches getting involved and taking on a

period of cooking and volunteering at the eatery, which she hopes will

specialize in soups, sandwiches and salads, as well as big breakfasts.

"This can be their mission in their own back yard," she

said.

The old Ranch House Restaurant might also offer new

beginnings. Oard hopes once it's established they can open it up for people who

need to do community service through the court system, which could train them

as cooks, servers and more.

"If we can get (Christian) believers all over

mid-Michigan knowing about this mission field, we might get people from all

over," she said. "There might be a church from Midland that wants to come up

and help."

Oard said the restaurant would run as a nonprofit, with a

separate board from the 15-year-old mission. While there are a lot of details